Okay so I leave for China in two days so I thought it was about time I made the most of this fantastic experience and wrote my first blog.

If I'm being honest I was inspired by some pictures that have been uploaded to facebook by some of the fellows in India and I feel like I might explode with excitement and I need to let all my feelings out. I feel like I'm on a emotional roller coaster and I havn't even left yet. One minute I can't sit still I'm so excited and the next I'm anxious about missing my family.

I have spent the last few days trying and succeeding in filling my 20kg of luggage which has not been too draining as it has meant I got to go on a extreme shopping trip. I spent most of the time trying to find an excuse to tell everyone around me what I was shopping for, regaurdless of whether I knew them or not.

I can't wait to get to Beijing. I'm facinated by the culture and cannot wait to be immersed in the language as I'm hoping to carry on with Mandarin when I go to university - if i dont fail too badly. I'm touched that there are so many families willing to take us all on and cannot wait to meet the family I will be staying with. I have spent too much time thinking of the perfect gift to show them my appreciation but in the end I found a guide to Cambridge that is written in Mandarin and Cambridge fudge. I also managed to meet a man from Shanghai whilst in Cambridge gift shop, which was great as it gave me another chance to talk all about The Global Fellowship.

Only 48 hours and 30 minutes until I jet off and I still havn't finished packing. So I best get back to that.

Day 2.5

Very tired, long day running around the city with University of Delhi students on a 'City Hunt'. Essentially it was to get us used to the transportation system but effectively just made us realise that as we don't speak Hindi and obviously aren't locals we will be charged triple what our skilful chaperones managed to barter the price down to. My group (GF Bach- named after the German composer simply because we had to make a team name out of the first letters of all our first names) won the 'City Hunt' competition and were given a special literary prize, very exciting. Went out in the city properly for the first time this evening and discovered that the heat makes me lose my patience rather quickly- especially when having to stand in large groups waiting for everyone to make a decision where to go. This of course ended in myself and a couple others breaking off from the larger group to explore the city at a perhaps quicker pace on our own. After delving into real Delhi life and wandering through the local market filled with hundreds of Delhi locals bartering over various items of clothing we made it back to the hotel without having encountered any problems (beyond the couple of guys trying to sell us some probably illegal smokable goods). Talking to the other guys who had stayed as a large group we realised that although there is strength in numbers, too many may also cause problems as some people are quick to take advantage of unknowing foreigners. However this being said, in many cases their intentions were good and I was perhaps to quick to ignore/reject the potentially helpful advances of men on the street. We'll see what happens on that front. All in all very very fun day, so tired though so good night all.

The capital city of Delhi in comparison to London. Roads are absolute chaos, its generally scary when your sat in a car everyone is hooting and pulling out here there and everywhere! But its all being constructed and there is rubble and bricks everywhere so I am told it is because of the Common Wealth Games happening in October and lots of building needs to take place in a short amount of time.
 
It is so humid as well. I love the sun and the heat but there is no sun is covered with cloud and mist from the rubble. When taking in a breath of summer fresh air in Kent is very different from the clammy air I am now adapting to. Another thing I feel is that after having a clean shower I then go outside and feel dirty again. we were greeted, everybody saying Namaste and holding there hands together. They seemed so pleased to see us. They put a flower garlands around our neck and a red spot on out forehead (which was really hard to wash off in the shower) and we were also given a very nice juice drink and showed to lunch.

Started of the day at the British councils in Delhi and then had a City Hunt with three Indian students which were very good. We used bicycle trams and mini car trams to get around. It was very fun and exciting but extremely hot and has got a little burnt and put sun cream on. We visited the Indian gate, a temple and a tomb and market.

The Indian gate was very good, I tried taking a picture and it steamed up either because of pollution or because of the heat I’m not really sure. The Indian Gate was being renovated I think because of the Common Wealth games but it was still very good to see.  The Indian gate is a monument that signifies respect for the people of India who died during the war between Pakistan and India. We took a picture and it was soon time to move on to out next monument.

The tomb looked really interesting. We had to wait for a long time outside and flies and giant ants were walking all over my feet. It made me shiver it was horrible. As Reece said the ants were so big they were bench pressing my toes ha! E had to wait because the ticket office was charging the Indian students 10 rupees and us 250! The Indian students were very good they were not having any of it.

Then we went to the temple. The temple was very interesting. We were asked to take off our shoes and put them in a bag before entering. We then walked up the stairs and had to stick to a rug carpet thing because the floor was sooo hot. It reminded me of being on holiday and being sat by the pool when the tiles are so hot. So we took off our shoes, turned our phones on silent and were not aloud to talk. We got told by the Indian students that it was a place for all religions hence there was not status of Brahman or anything else.

We also visited a big market which was really good but had not had the chance to get any cash out so couldn’t  by anything today so had to wait and will visit it again. When we were waiting for a mini car to take us back to the council a little boy was tapping me on the arm asking for money and stayed for ages.

After we got back to the hotel we went back out to another little shopping centre which sold really nice things such as pillow cases, tea in boxes, elephants, Braham models and paintings.

It has been a culture shock the last two days and I still need to time to adapt to everything but so far has been really fun. nRight now I am going to bed will blog again soon. I have added just a few pictures to make it more interesting. Still need to get to grips with the whole blogging thing.

This is us in Delhi with Indian University students doing the City Hunt.

This is a few peeps nat the airport in london.

Second day in Dehli, much better than the first - we saw a lot more today (although briefly at times as it was a race!! We were split into teams of 6, each with a student from Dehli University and had to find certain clues and take specific modes of transport including the metro,bus,auto and pedal rickshaws, all a fascinating experience. Doing this allowed us to work alongside our Indian peers to reach a common objective which was simply to see Dehli with a slight competitive edge, something which evaporated early on as the intense humidity and heat took hold. The best part of the day was the Rickshaws which allowed us to see the chaotic roads of Dehli in which horns are used to notify other drivers of your presence rather than the offensive/angry objective it carries with it in the UK. Many monumets were visited including the India gate (India's national monument) which looks similar to the arc d triomphe in France. The bonus of the day was that is was not just sightseeing; and forced us to work not only to work as a GF team within a team (6 out of 30) but also with the students from Dehli University in order to experience their city. Topped off by a lovely meal in which football, and in particular England's world cup woes being the central topic was a fitting end to a wonderful first full day in Dehli!!! Pictures may be added to my blog in the next few days once i get up together with my technology and take even more pics!!  Bye for now!! :)

Today we travelled around delhi on a city hunt game, which our team lost at. We both spent the most and took the longest, arriving back at the British Council 30 minutes late. We also failed to take the metro back, which would have delayed us even more. However in the words of my mother when i was about 9, its not the winning, its the taking part. Of course it is all about the winning really, we just lost any competitive spirit, as the day got hotter and the sweat soaked our clothes. I think our group still had the most fun though and we made it big onto Indian TV.

After the game we had lunch and then had the afternoon off so we decided to walk in to town. Not a great deal was open as it was a Sunday, yet we kept being harrassed by some locals who were trying to persuade us to go to a market. After reccomendations from a few of them, one insisted that he would take it. He said that he wasn't after anything but was a student and wanted to practice his english. The whole situation was hard as we were not sure whether the guy was just really nice or we were being hustled. In the end we thought it was probally best not to coninue follow him so we turned and walked back to the hotel. When we got back, we conversed with the other group who had been approached by a similar guy spinning similar stories.

Challenge: to visit 4 monuments using various means of transport in as little time as possible and spending as little money on the way.

After dragging myself out of bed and grabbing some breakfast, we headed to the British Council offices in Delhi. Once there we were briefed on our Delhi hunt and introduced to some very kind and hospitable young girls.

It was a fantastic day out with three amazing people from colleges here in Delhi. We really got the opportunity to venture out and discover Delhi for its true self. The experience was complete in terms of sweating bucket loads, overwhelmingly cramped buses and riding the exciting and dangerous rickshaws.

The monuments we visited were simply breathtaking in grandeur and sheer beauty. The Lotus Temple really stood out for me, it reminds me of origami. We also visited the India Gate, Humayan Tombs and Delhi Haat. Evrything was beutiful and of course full of the vibrant, colour full atmosphere.

The most memorable part of the day were the children on the streets, it was hard.

I found it extremely difficult to ignore and turn a blind eye on the sad faced, hungry and miserable looking children. Picture a 4 year old struggling with his two-year-old sister in his arms whilst at the same time trying to communicate his desperation and need by extending his minute mucky hand, asking for a rupee or two to be put in it.  I felt pretty helpless at that point. I wanted to look away I could not look in to the little boy’s almost tearful gloomy eyes. I had not been able to withdraw money so couldn’t really help out the small boy. There were many situations similar to these.

On a happier note I was able to provide some of the packet of crisps given to us by the British Council to another group of children. It was so gratifying to see them satisfied by a small packet of  “Lays” crisps.

Sticking to the theme of children on the street and older people asking for money it was interesting to get a local perspective on the issue. Some of the students from Delhi felt that some of the locals that were asking for many did not put it to good use so rather than being of benefit the money they were given was put to mal use. Some of the young people belonged to gangs who sent out the younger members to beg for money and then use the rupees collected to buy drugs.

So, how helpful are the rupees we hand out to the people we see begging on the street, how do we decide the genuine needy from those trying to exploit?

My answer is simple; provide them with food.

We started out early in the morning to do a city hunt. It involved travelling round the city to find major places of interest. The first clues took us to India Gate which should be beautiful but because of the commonwealth games later in the year a lot of work is being done, not jst on the gate but ll over the city. Our second stop was Humayan's tomb followed by the Lotus temple and Delli Haat, a market place. We had to take different means of local transport to get around, we started off in an auto or a ricshaw which techinacally fit three people in the back. Later we had to used a bike ricshaw where you could fit two or four people in depending on the seats, so we fitted three people on a two seater, this was followed by a bus which is totally different to English buses, you get on sit down and then you pay later when the ticket people come around. On the bus we saw a lot of poverty in the streets with people living on the street, kids working to earn money and begging. We discovered later that even if you tell the beggers that you have no money the people, children especially, will continue asking you for money no matter how much you tell them you don't have money, they even ignored the Indian counterparts that were with us accompanying us on the city hunt.

Later in the afternoon a group of people went out and we discovered how many adults you can fit in a ricshaw. Including the driver we had 6 people in it. ONe person sat in the front with the driver, 3 sat on the back seat and I was sat on the bar that was on one side of the ricshaw - not comfortable! Especially going over potholes!

Good Night!

NI hao  i guess i should really call this post the countdown to panic  as i've got two days to get ready luckly for me i've got some help to pack my bags.

which i can tell you is really good as i'm starting to get excited to say the least.

theres so much i'm looking forward to seeing and doing and learning about  it really will be amazing and hopefully life changing especially since all of my fellows being china fellows are amazing so i just wanted to take this memont to say thank to all my friends family fellows and members of british council  who have helped me get to this point  but i really need to get back to packing 

zaijian   

An early start of 8:15 after yesterdays calamity of travel and briefings at the British High Commision in Delhi.

Today was 'CITY HUNT' in which we traveled to the major tourist destinations such as the Lotus Temple, Humayun's Tomb and India Gate via many different modes of transport - auto-rickshaw, cycle rickshaw, the bus and the metro. NEVER in my life have i encountered such busy streets, litterally cars and buses all honk at each other non stop, theres  NO lanne discipline at all; so on the freeway there are 4 lanes drawn onto the road but there will be six lines of traffic spread accross it! Crazy.

A hugely exciting yet a seriously scary moment was when Connor, an Indian student and I were in a rickshaw on the freeway and it broke down in the middle lane! We sat there peering out of the side  being honked at with the fear of being crashed into whilst the driver was frantically trying to restart it. 

We spent the day with some of our Indian peers from the university who were studying economics. It was really interesting to see the city through their eyes. They helped us get by hugely as they bartered with the drivers to make sure we didn't get ripped off with tourist prices and kept us on track so we didn't get lost!

The heat was almost unbearable, about 40 degrees and the greatest humidity. It really takes it out of you.